Origin, history and Legend of Chess game.

Origin and history :

The origin of chess is still an open debate. While the main contender for this question is China , many say that it originated in India. Most scholars agree that chess originated in India in the sixth century as “chaturanga“, a military-style strategy game. It was also called as Shatranj in some parts of the world

Early forms of chess originated in India around the 6th century AD. One ancestor was chaturanga, a popular four-player war game that prefigured several key aspects of modern chess. A form of chaturanga traveled to Persia, where the name of the “king” piece changed from the Sanskrit rajah to the Persian shah. From shah all European names for the game are derived. We receive the English words “chess” and “check” from the French descendant echec. (And “rook” descends from the Persian rukh, meaning either “chariot” or “boat.”)

The following is the “legend” of chess which is not known whether it’s true or myth. It goes like this ….Hundreds and hundreds of years ago there was a King in India who loved to play games. But he had gotten bored of the games that were present at the time and wanted a new game that was much more challenging. He commissioned a poor mathematician who lived in his kingdom to come up with a new game. After months of struggling with all kinds of ideas the mathematician came up with the game of Chaturanga. The game had two armies each lead by a King who commanded the army to defeat the other by capturing the enemy King. It was played on a simple 8×8 square board. The King loved this game so much that he offered to give the poor mathematician anything he wished for.

Legend :

Early forms of chess originated in India around the 6th century AD. One ancestor was chaturanga, a popular four-player war game that prefigured several key aspects of modern chess. A form of chaturanga traveled to Persia, where the name of the “king” piece changed from the Sanskrit rajah to the Persian shah. From shah all European names for the game are derived. We receive the English words “chess” and “check” from the French descendant echec. (And “rook” descends from the Persian rukh, meaning either “chariot” or “boat.”)

“I would like one grain of rice for the first square of the board, two grains for the second, four grains for the third and so on doubled for each of the 64 squares of the game board” said the mathematician. “Is that all?” asked the King, “Why don’t you ask for gold or silver coins instead of rice grains”. “The rice should be sufficient for me.” replied the mathematician.

The King ordered his staff to lay down the grains of rice and soon learned that all the wealth in his kingdom would not be enough to buy the amount of rice needed on the 64th square. In fact the whole kingdoms supply of rice was exhausted before the 40th square was reached. “You have provided me with such a great game and yet I cannot fulfill your simple wish. You are indeed a genius.” said the King and offered to make the mathematician his top most advisor instead. The rice he asked will be around 18 billion billion. So if a bag of rice contained a billion grains, you would need 18 billion such bags.